Martin Dannecker

Martin Dannecker (born 1942) is a German sexologist and author. Dannecker collaborated with the historical MAP ally film director Rosa von Praunheim on the film It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society in Which He Lives, which premiered on WDR Television in 1972 and is widely credited with launching the modern German gay rights movement. Along with with Volkmar Sigusch and Gunter Schmidt, he is editor of Beiträge zur Sexualforschung (87 editions, published by Psychosozial-Verlag).

From 1977 to 2005, Dannecker was employed at the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (Institute for Sexual Science) at the clinic of Goethe University in Frankfurt, directed by Volkmar Sigusch from 1973 to 2006. Here, Dannecker offered courses on sexual counseling as well as homosexuality and film studies. He has authored numerous articles and books on homosexuality, HIV/AIDS and sexual orientation. He also participated in workshops and conferences on film and LGBT topics. On the topic of pedophilia, his most well known contribution in appeared in a book edited by Eberhard Schorsch and others, in a chapter titled (in English translation) "Comments on the criminal treatment of pedosexuality" (1987). Translated, he concluded that:

Despite the critical objections raised in the last paragraph, non-violent pedosexual encounters and relationships are not monstrous. However, compared to the reality of other sexualities, these are only quantitative differences. Even in marriage, a woman's right to sexual self-determination is often rudely violated. Likewise, even within unsuspicious sexual encounters, the reciprocity of sexual need satisfaction is often not achieved, sometimes not even intended by one partner. However, criminal law is unlikely to be the appropriate instrument to enforce ideal demands of this kind.

The unqualified penalization of pedosexuality is also an unsuitable instrument for improving the internal climate in pedosexual encounters or relationships. On the contrary: criminal sanctions, in addition to the much-discussed secondary harm caused by interrogations and trials, bring a climate into pedosexual relationships that increases their precarious dimensions.

In 2005, Dannecker retired and moved from Frankfurt to Berlin.